Ancients: SICILY. Syracuse. Ca. 465-450 BC. AR tetradrachm (25mm, 16.70 gm, 2h). NGC Fine 4/5 - 3/5, overstruck....

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SICILY. Syracuse. Ca. 465-450 BC. AR tetradrachm (25mm, 16.70 gm, 2h). NGC Fine 4/5 - 3/5, overstruck. Charioteer driving quadriga walking right, kentron in right hand, reins in both; Nike flying left above, crowning charioteer, ketos right in exergue / ΣVRAKΟΣΙΟN, head of Arethusa right, wearing pendant earring and beaded necklace, hair bound in taenia with large loop at base of neck; four dolphins swimming clockwise around. Boehringer 489 (dies V258/R351). HGC 2, 1312.

Ex Vilmar Numismatics, private sale with old dealer's tag included; Aaron Morse Collection.

Though positioned outside mainland Greece, Syracuse was founded by colonists from central Greece in the 8th century BC, and retained all the trappings of Hellenic culture while actively participating in the wider Greek world. For centuries there were conflicts between the original settlers (Gamoroi) and the servile class. Matters became complicated when the nearby city of Gela began to pursue an expansionist policy and to intervene in the affairs of its neighbors. Gelon, the tyrant of the city, conquered Syracuse in 484 BC, establishing the 'Deinomenid Tyranny', named after Gelon's father. Gelon fought off a Carthaginian incursion of possibly 300,000 men in 480 BC, right around the time Themistocles and the Athenians defeated the Persians at Salamis. There are hypotheses that suppose the Persians and Carthaginians were in contact and perhaps even maintained a loose alliance, seeking to crush the Greek world in a vast pincer movement of Mediterranean-level proportions. But the Greeks prevailed, defeating both their enemies so soundly that neither Persia nor Carthage threatened the Greek world for the rest of the fifth century.

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